


Forever

by lielabell



Category: Big Time Rush
Genre: Happy Ending, M/M, boys being in love, omg all the fluff in the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-26
Updated: 2012-01-26
Packaged: 2017-10-30 03:22:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/327214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lielabell/pseuds/lielabell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once, when he was thirteen, Kendall asked James what he thought falling in love would feel like.  James had been quiet for a long moment, then he smiled and said it would feel like forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forever

**Author's Note:**

> Posted to LJ in March of 2011

Once, when he was thirteen, Kendall asked James what he thought falling in love would feel like. James had been quiet for a long moment, then he smiled and said it would feel like forever. 

*

It starts like this:

Two boys walking side by side, faces made sticky from AstroPops, smiles wide as the day is long. 

A lake, a tree and a tire tied to a rope. Hands holding tight as it swings out across the murky water, then a whoop and a splash and the sound of laughter. 

Night skies filled with stars, a moon the size of Montana and fireflies darting through the warm summer air. 

That long, lazy summer, the last before they slip out of childhood. Three months of bliss that ties them close in ways they won't understand for many, many years.

*

The days grow short, the nights grown cold. The seasons change again and again, pulling them away from childhood and into that crazy dance of adolescence. 

There are girls and dances and hands held as they walk down the road. Their voices change and they laugh at each other's creaks and croaks. 

There are fights, because all boys fight. And a night where the two of them leave thinking that they will never speak to each other again. A month of hurt feelings and unhappiness follows, but the month after that they are glued to each others sides again like the whole thing never happened. Though neither admits it, that month is the standard for what heartache feels like for both of them until Big Time Rush breaks up some twelve years later.

Through it all their friendship remains the constant, the lodestone of their lives. 

*

Things don't go smoothly, for all fame and fortune smiles on them. 

Hollywood is a jealous mistress and a cruel one too. She promises everything without ever mentioning the price. And, while they in no way suffer the fate of many a washed-up teen heartthrob, neither of them leave with that wide-eyed innocence they had when they arrived.

The break up of the band, the tabloids, the women only interested in what the boys' reflected fame can do for them -- all leave their mark. All help to drive them apart. 

There are hard feelings, it would be impossible for there not to be. Anger and hurt fester, rubbing them raw, cutting them off from one another. What once seemed so unalterable, so certain, breaks and twists and fades until it is a faint reflection of what it once was. 

Then one night there is a fight fueled by alcohol and broken dreams. Harsh words are spoken. Ugly, hateful words. Words that rip what is left of their friendship apart.

They go their separate ways, leaving behind all that once bound them together to crumble into dust. 

*

Time passes, day into night into day, until enough has gone by to soften the painful edges of those brief years in the sun. 

A few emails are exchanged, then a phone call, and finally a visit. 

The room is small, just large enough for the bed, desk and dresser the college provides, but there's room enough for the two of them to sit side by side, a pizza box on the floor in front of them along with two six-packs of cheap beer.

The night start out slow, filled with awkward small talk about new lives and friends with unfamiliar names. 

Then the beer gets to them, loosens up old memories and makes them laugh again. 

The night ends in a bed just barely big enough for the two of them, arms wrapped tight around each other and hearts beating in time.

*

When he is twenty-nine an interviewer for Rolling Stone asks Kendall what finding love feels like. Kendall glances over at James and gives his hand a squeeze. "Forever," Kendall answers.


End file.
